Hillary Clinton Calls America’s Struggle With Racism Far From Over

Hillary Rodham Clinton delivered on Saturday her boldest remarks yet on race and gun violence, topics that have quickly become some of the most prominent and divisive in the presidential campaign, particularly after Wednesday’s mass shooting in Charleston, S.C.

“It’s tempting to dismiss a tragedy like this as an isolated incident, to believe that in today’s America bigotry is largely behind us, that institutionalized racism no longer exists,” Mrs. Clinton said in a speech in San Francisco. “But despite our best efforts and our highest hopes, America’s long struggle with race is far from finished.”

Invoking President Obama at times, Mrs. Clinton called for a “common sense” approach to gun laws, pledging to take swift action if elected. She did not, however, make clear how she would navigate the divide in Congress that has undercut Mr. Obama’s own efforts to pass gun laws.

“The president is right. The politics on this issue have been poisoned,” Mrs. Clinton said. “But we can’t give up. The stakes are too high. The costs are too dear. And I am not and will not be afraid to keep fighting for common sense reforms.”

Mrs. Clinton’s strongly worded stance on the issue could help her make a contrast with Senator Bernie Sanders, who has been drawing large crowds in early voting states, where recent polls show him narrowing the gap with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Sanders, a socialist from Vermont also seeking the Democratic nomination, has a decidedly mixed record on gun control, which may pose problems for his campaign as it seeks to bill itself as a more liberal alternative to Mrs. Clinton.

Saturday was not the first time that Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic campaign, still in its infancy, had found itself having to address race and racism in the wake of violence. Her first major campaign speech, at Columbia University in April, coincided with widespread unrest in Baltimore after the death of a black man, Freddie Gray, who had been injured in police custody. Mrs. Clinton used that occasion to advocate an overhaul of the criminal justice system, saying it was “time for honesty about race and justice in America.”

She echoed that sentiment on Saturday at the annual meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, pressing for a candid national conversation on what she called a “difficult topic.”

Race, Mrs. Clinton said, remains “a deep fault line in America,” despite the election of Mr. Obama, the country’s first black president. She also cited several statistics that suggest widespread inequality between black and white Americans.

“Our problem is not all kooks and Klansmen. It’s also the cruel joke that goes unchallenged. It’s the offhand comment about not wanting those people in the neighborhood,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Let’s be honest, for a lot of well meaning, open-minded white people, the sight of a young black man in a hoodie still evokes a twinge of fear.”

Mrs. Clinton, who attended a fund-raiser Wednesday in Charleston just blocks from where the shooting took place later that night, also called Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on Saturday to offer her support to him and his constituents, Mr. Graham said. Race and gun violence quickly reasserted themselves as topics of conversation on the campaign trail after Wednesday’s deadly shooting, which took the lives of nine people gathered for Bible study at Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston. Both Republicans and Democrats have scrambled to pay respects to the victims, but also to take a stance that may attract voters.

On the Democratic side, Martin O’Malley spoke out for gun control on Friday, sending a strongly worded email to supporters calling for a federal assault weapons ban, stricter background checks and measures to tamp down straw-buying. In 2013, when he was governor of Maryland, Mr. O’Malley signed similar measures into law, making his state one of the most tightly controlled in the country.

Mrs. Clinton and her Democratic challengers will need to persuade minority voters, an important Democratic constituency that put its vote behind Mr. Obama in 2008, to support them in large numbers to win in 2016.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Clinton Says America’s Struggle With Racism Is ‘Far From Finished’. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe